Why ‘Conventional Work’ Isn’t For Everyone

How to Crack the ‘Conventional’ Work Week Mould

Whilst writing this post I’m currently sat on a flight from Belfast to New York. It’s been an interesting 4 weeks since I packed in my day job and decided to leave and go travelling. What’s really stood out to me in that time is just how many people are trapped in society.

We are working inflexible jobs because we think that is all we are capable of. We are brainwashed by education, by the news and by the government to not question the status quo.

We are told from a young age that you need to get a job, to work 40 hours a week, to earn a reasonable salary and to have a few weeks holiday a year.

This conventional approach has millions of us trapped in our pre-set, sometimes mundane lives whilst only 1% reach out for the true lifestyle that is possible. Many of us dream of being millionaires but what does being a millionaire actually mean?

What does being a millionaire actually mean?

Is it sitting at home with a million pound in the bank? No. Although many of us think we want money in the bank what we are actually striving for is a luxury lifestyle. We want to be sitting on a beach, sipping cocktails. With a boat out front in a hot country, sunbathing in front of an infinity pool looking out onto the ocean.

Now that is living like a millionaire.

Who says you need millions in the bank to get this view?

But what most of us don’t realise is that actually having that lifestyle is something that is not just reserved for the elite.

All you need to be capable of is flexibility. You need to challenge yourself to break the mould and be different to what we are taught to be.

You need to be brave and you need to take risks.

Make the boss richer or enrich your own life?

When you start to look at what you’re actually doing with your work life, you begin to analyse how much money you earn and how many hours a week you work. Eventually, you begin to realise that your currency is being spent on little else than a cyclical lifestyle that is keeping you from experiencing a far richer currency: time.

The real currency is time.

Now, your boss, the guy who owns the company and the people that pay you – they are the clever ones. What they do is they employ people (you) to do the work for them, they pay them a wage (a lot less than what that person brings into the company) and then they pay themselves a much higher wage having done none of the work.

Why make the boss richer when you could be doing it for yourself?

So the question to ask yourself: is it possible to earn the money yourself? Well, of course, it’s possible and there are people out there already doing. What I’d suggest, however, is to consider the possibility that you don’t need to work a conventional work life.

Let me introduce ‘passive income’.

Passive income is simple. Traditional jobs have you trading time for money whereas passive income is money earned without trading time.

This amazing book has helped me understand the importance of time management, the new rich way. I’d recommend reading it!

The challenge is to come up with a business model that rewards you for working less. I’m currently reading Tim Ferris’s 4 hour work week an amazing book that asks its readers to challenge the regular working order of things and think to themselves:

“Is there a way I can reach my end goal, without doing all of the in-between parts”.

It states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. You would be surprised how many different things in life follow this rule.

20% of the time, you earn 80% of the money.
80% of the time, you earn 20% of the money.

This rule is evident in so many businesses, Tim Ferris challenges you to lose the 80% that isn’t working for you.

If your business can earn 80% of the income it did before but with 80% less time worked surely it’s got to be effective. What you can then do is focus on the millionaire lifestyle.

Spend your time salsa dancing, boxing, playing golf, focussing on your family and spend the other amount of time hacking your business to work for you rather than against you.

How do you turn your business passive?

The secret to passive income is automation and removing yourself as the bottleneck. This is something that I am currently working on with a close friend of mine. His business has been operating for the last 3 years successfully and he is a singular enterprise (he is the sole worker 95% of the time).

He does all of the work for the business and trades his time for money.

My challenge to him is to automate the process. Can he get somebody else to do the same work that he is doing, then just check the work himself? Suddenly, instead of completing 80 hours of work for a client he is now only spending 10 hours checking that work is to the standard he expects.

He doesn’t earn the full 100% like he did before because he has to pay this guy to do the work but he still earns 80% of the income. This is in exchange for over 80% less time spent working.

That is working smarter, not harder.

Imagine now, he does that five times with different workers. Now he’s billing for 400 hours of work for only 50 hours of his own time.

What if he then automates that further and hires a virtual assistant to do that 50 hours of work checking that the work is to the standard he expects and he only has to check once an hour a day with his assistant.

Now he’s billing 400 hours work a month (plus his time for his VA) and only working 20 hours himself.

The power of automation and scaling is incredible. The trick is having a good balance between a system in place, along with full trust for your team, that delivers to your standard of work but allows you to take your hands off the reins.

This isn’t an easy get rich quick option

Get rich quick scheme? Definitely NOT.

Bear in mind this isn’t something that is going to make you rich overnight. In the example above it would be crucial that the business owner understands and can complete himself every aspect of the process.

Why is that important?

It’s important so that he can spot a problem as or before it happens. By understanding every element, he is on hand to guide and support and weed out problems.

If he was relying solely on his hired help and they make a mistake it would be his reputation on the line. This is where the hard work comes in.

Before you can automate any business, you have to have a clear business model that works.

It’s no good dreaming of automation if you don’t have a solid business setup in the first place. But riddle me this, if you put 10 years into your current job and consider where you are at in 10 years time, what will you have accomplished in that time?

Sure you may have had a few nice holidays, got a promotion, got a bigger house and a bigger car. But are you really any closer to your dream lifestyle and are you truly happier?

Now, look at the alternative solution. I’ve known entrepreneurs such as Heath Armstrong who spent a good five years, trying and failing at multiple different business ventures but within the last two years has revolutionarily changed his life.

He’s now created a sustainable, scalable Amazon business. With impressive automation, he only puts a small amount of time into his business every day but it has allowed him to move to the Pacific Northwest and focus on what’s important in his life and subsequentially truly focus on happiness.

That dude is an inspiration but what he has accomplished sends a clear message to us all. No matter what situation you are in, no matter what problems you have, there is always an option to strive for that millionaire lifestyle.

There is only one thing I can promise you with absolute certainty

You will never get rich in life making another man rich.

To dare is to dream – and the worst that could happen is that it doesn’t work out for you the first few times you try.

The beauty of the internet and the age of the lifestyle business is that you can start up easily with almost zero upfront costs and it’s never been easier to setup your own business.

Here is what I’d suggest:

Start earning money online – It’s never been easier to get started on a side hustle and there are some amazing methods for making money online, you could be earning extra income by the end of the month. This post talks about some of the ways you can make money online.

Once you’ve got your first few pounds, scale up – Once you’ve earned your first few pounds online its amazing how much that can inspire you. Once you’ve accomplished some income look at then scaling your efforts into larger goals.

Balance the scales of work/life balance – Keep your day job until you are comfortably earning enough money on the side to either give you that extra freedom you want or you can start balancing the scales. Say you’re earning £1000 a month on the side with minimal time invested why not change your job to part-time and begin your transition to a lifestyle focused way of life.

Discover ways to make passive income online – Passive income is the cream of the crop of online business. It essentially means you are no longer trading time for money.

Time to challenge the Quo

There you have it – I hope I’ve inspired you to take some action and explore the possibilities, let me know in the comments what you’d be interesting on working on and reach out to me if you’re struggling with ideas, I’m sure we can come up with something that works for you, together.

In the past, I’ve had these discussions with people I’ve worked with, people I’ve lived with and family members. We’ve had all sorts of passions discussed – all of which could all be turned into passive income or a side income. Some examples have been:

A personal counsellor to help people through challenges and struggles

A leadership coach on how to be the very best leader possible and what qualities you must have

A real estate agent with a different approach, honesty and approachability

Producing an app/website to help people get the most out of cooking whilst travelling

The list can go on, the point I’m making is there are hidden dreams inside all of us and we tell ourselves… one day.

Jamie is a freelance writer and sales coach who has over 10 years of experience in retail and sales. He is now taking his experience on the road and is on a mission to help other entrepreneurs achieve their potential.

Stellar dude. For me, it was also really powerful to not only visualize that prosperous lifestyle, but to live frugally while doing so. Ridding of all distractions and shiny objects that aren’t contributing absolute value to the mission, and being extremely aware of where money is being spent and why. I would have never paid off $20k debt without selling all of my things, forcing myself to stay away from the bar scenes, and relentlessly reminding myself of what I was working towards and why. Great article my dude.

Love this post J, it’s so easy to get bogged down in the 9 to 5 (and some) and bust your gut for someone else. I think after this year’s experience I am definitely re-evaluating my happiness and the work I do. I’ve discovered my new love (and hopefully talent) for writing and you inspire me to pursue that more. Finding the time is the main struggle at the moment.

Absolutely it’s a talent, you rock! I can’t think of anything better now than having a creative outlet and freeing up at least some of your time from a ‘classic’ job to maybe having a balance in the middle.

Time management is always hard, maybe just set a few non-moveable time say Tuesdays and Thursdays 6pm to 8pm where you only work on your writing in that time. And if someone asks you to do something you just have to tell them, sorry no, that’s my writing time.

Before I set specific writing times I just used to find it getting away from me all the time.

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